Should you water bulbs - or is the rain enough?

14 years ago

I've never thought about this before and never done it. I live on Lake Ontario in upstate NY and we usually get plenty of rain in the spring but it has been dry this April. I bought some potted tulips and daffodils and planted them last week and have been watering them some. Should I be doing that with the existing ones too? thanks for any help

Comments (6)

Chemocurl zn5b/6a Indiana
14 years ago
Should I be doing that with the existing ones too?
I don't think it is necessary, and I never water much of anything once it gets established. My daffs just 'do' on whatever rain they get.

Sue
ladychroe
14 years ago
Ditto. Water the pots, but leave the planted ones alone.
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jeannie7
14 years ago
It was a quite different summer last year--I didn't bring out our sprinkler once for the lawn...not once did I have to water the lawn, we got that much rain.

Now, if the situation was the opposite, then I would have brought out the sprinkler quite often to give the lawn the required 1"....and the perennial and annual beds would have also been given their due.
As it was, they didn't and I didn't.

Now if you feel your rainfall is adequate, then your bulbs wont require it. But if you get what is a normal rainfall in your upstate garden, then surely sometime during the summer they will require you to bring out the hose.
If not for the tulips, which by that time, have withered and sent their sugars back down, other plants will need water.

In the spring, there is usually enough water in the ground from snowmelt and early rainfall that extra watering is never needed.
calistoga_al ca 15 usda 9
14 years ago
Gardening in the summertime desert of California, where all the rain is in the winter, wintertime supplemental water is not usually needed. This year January was so dry it was necessary to water the tulip beds for the first time. The answer is if it needs water, give it water. There is no such thing as NORMAL rainfall! Al
jeannie7
14 years ago
No such thing as NORMAL rainfall!

Well, maybe you feel that way in California---is anything normal down there...
but in areas of the north-east, normal rainfall can be counted on during the months of April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November....
and if anything untowards normalcy happens, we put it down to 'just one of those things, one of the those bells that now and then rings'.......

and then, to make it rain, we wash our cars.
calistoga_al ca 15 usda 9
14 years ago
If it rains in California in June,July,August,Sepember,or October, that would not be NORMAL. What is considered a drought for most of the country is normal for us. We are used to watering any time of the year when the plant needs it. It is safe to wash your car all summer with no fear of a rain resulting. Al